OWENS RETURNS – TANSKI EARNS A CONTRACT

WHALE ANNOUNCE PLAYER SIGNINGS

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Scott Tanski Inks AHL Deal and Jordan Owens and T.J. Fast Sign PTOs

Connecticut Whale general manager Jim Schoenfeld today announced three player signings by the team.

Forward Scott Tanski signed an American Hockey League Standard Player’s Contract (SPC) with the Whale, and forward Jordan Owens and defenseman T.J. Fast were signed to Professional Tryout (PTO) agreements.

Tanski, 21, a rookie out of the Ontario Hockey League, was the Whale’s leading preseason goal-scorer, with three in four games.  In 67 games with the OHL’s Brampton Battalion last season, the 6-1, 192-pound Tanski notched a team-high 47 points in 67 games, with 18 goals and a team-leading 29 assists.  In 219 career games with the Battalion over four seasons, the Burlington, Ontario native totaled 53 goals and 80 assists for 133 points, along with 130 penalty minutes.

Owens, a fifth-year pro, is entering his second tour of duty with the Whale franchise.  The 6-0, 193-pound winger played 160 games in a Hartford Wolf Pack uniform starting in the 2006-07 season, registering 25 goals and 45 assists for 70 points, plus 163 PIM, before being traded to the Detroit Red Wings for current Whale teammate Kris Newbury March 3, 2010.  Since the trade, Owens has been with the Grand Rapids Griffins, Detroit’s AHL affiliate, to which he contributed six goals and 14 assists for 20 points, while serving 101 minutes in penalties, last season.

Prior to turning pro with the Wolf Pack late in the 2006-07 campaign, Owens, a 25-year-old native of Toronto, spent three seasons in the OHL with the Mississauga IceDogs.

Fast, a 6-0, 194-pound blueliner who hails from Calgary, Alta., split last season between the Rochester Americans of the AHL and the ECHL’s Cincinnati Cyclones.  In 13 games with Rochester, Fast posted a goal and an assist for two points and served 12 minutes in penalties. In ECHL action, the 24-year-old led Cyclones defensemen in goals, and finished second among team defenders in points and assists, with 9-18-27 in 58 games.

In a three-year pro career, Fast has logged a total of 77 AHL games with the Americans and Peoria Rivermen, with career numbers of two goals and six assists for eight points, along with 28 PIM.  In 113 career ECHL games with the Cyclones and Alaska Aces, he has amassed 21-46-87, with 68 PIM.  Fast was a second-round draft pick (60th overall) by the Los Angeles Kings in 2005 out of the University of Denver, where he played a season-and-a-half.  Fast also played a year-and-a-half in the WHL with the Tri-City Americans before turning pro.